COUNCIL tenants fear newly-improved homes will be left in a mess because compensation payments will not cover the cost of redecorating them.

Twenty six flats on George Street at Hindley are due to be renovated.

But several residents have complained because they have been offered the "insulting" sum of £180 to redecorate their five room flats after work is completed.

Irene Walls, 59, is due to have her flat rewired and a new central heating system installed.

She said: "The compensation is £36 per room, not enough to redecorate. I can't pay to have a decorator on that money. I am on income support.

"I am grateful this work is going to be carried out but I want the council to send somebody in to redecorate."

Mrs Walls is waiting to have a heart by-pass operation and is unable to decorate herself.

She pays £40.69 a week in rent and dreads the thought of not being able to return her home to its present condition. Another 60-year-old resident, who did not wish to be named, has already had the work done this week on his flat. He said: "I have no objections to the work being carried out and I have no complaints about the workmen but £180 is not enough to pay for the decorating."

A Wigan Council spokesman said the £180 figure was the standard amount set for the borough for council tenants in the same situation. He said: "I would like to remind people that we are spending something in the region of £700 per flat." He added: "We have tenants across the borough. If we give more to some, less will be available to for others. One of our officers has met Mrs Walls for quite a long time and advised her she should write to the director of housing."